A standard bass-drum pedal assembly has at least one post extending upward from a floor plate and in which at least one drum beater carried on a shaft is pivotal and movable against the force of at least one return spring by a mechanism actuatable by a pedal. Such a pedal assembly is attached to a section of a circular hoop of a bass drum. When the pedal is depressed by the foot of the percussionist, the beater strikes the skin of the drum.
A pedal assembly of this type that functions to transmit the foot action of the drummer quickly and precisely to the percussion instrument, for example, a bass drum, has been disclosed in DE 352 883 and DE 33 27 687.
A pedal assembly disclosed in EP 1 237 147 has two drum beaters that are operated by a two-part pedal with respective actuating mechanisms. A base of this pedal assembly comprises a floor plate carrying two posts at an outer end close to the bass drum and extending upward at right angles from the floor plate. These posts are detachably mounted to the floor plate by a screw/plug-in connection. They are interconnected by a shaft carrying the drum beaters and project vertically upward when fixed to the base so that the pedal assembly as a whole has a large overall height that, in particular, is difficult to transport. Since a drum kit is always a difficult item to set up, take down, and transport, this bulky pedal assembly is an extra problem.
As has been disclosed, for example by U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,312 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,446,508, the pedal assembly is fastened by a clip or a clamp to the hoop of the bass drum, the clip or clamp being tightly attached to the pedal assembly. Clamps of this type are composed of top and bottom clamp parts or jaws that grip the hoop. This attachment between pedal assembly and hoop must be disengaged or reclamped each time the bass drum is disassembled or assembled.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,990 discloses a clamping claw that secures a pedal assembly to a percussion instrument. Here the clamping claw is clamped in place on the hoop of the bass drum independently of the pedal assembly, then attached to the pedal assembly. During disassembly and assembly, the clamping claw remains in the clamped-in-place state on the hoop of the bass drum. First of all, the clamping claw that is clamped in place and projects beyond the circumferential rim of the hoop can interfere with transporting the bass drum, especially when the drum kit is designed to nest, and secondly, what is involved here is an attachment system that is composed of multiple individual parts.